I couldn’t work up much hatred for Sheffield, though. That’s just who he is. In his first two seasons with the team he was an All-Star twice, hit at least 34 home runs and drove in at least 120 runs. In 2004, he finished second (albeit a distant second) to Vlad Guerrero in the MVP voting — while at times playing so hurt he couldn’t lift his arm above his shoulder to shag fly balls.

He never hit the ball softly and was terrifying at the plate. That, and this, are why Sox fans don’t like him much.

Anyway, I digress. Granderson seems to have the poise to hack it in New York. Let’s hope so.

You’re right about that. He seems to be a perpetual malcontent. But he didn’t cause the problems in the Yankee clubhouse he seemed to cause in other places — or at least we didn’t hear about them as much. I always thought the Yankees kinda shafted him, bringing on Abreu and pushing him out after two productive years and one lost to injury. The way he played hurt made me respect him a lot more. But he suffers from the Barry Bonds complex. If you’re a jerk 90 percent of time, good luck getting sympathy.